Cartoon: Seating a President, Michael D Higgins

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Continuing on from yesterday’s post… while at the Donmar to collect cast graphs on my THE NIGHT ALIVE sketch, I noticed some unusual activity, well unusual is very subjective term in the middle of London on a balmy July evening, with the small hand on 10 and the big hand fast approaching it.

The narrow, cobblestoned Earlham Street on which the theatre stands, at number 41 to be precise, was filling fast with flash vehicles, some with diplomatic licence plates, carrying suited gentlemen, who quickly surrounded the Donmar door. Some even went in. Now this small little theatre in Covent Garden has a seating capacity of 250, with 251 seats according to its website.

Sounds Irish I know and many a true word said in jest. On that one extra seat was sitting a person of importance on this very night. It doesn’t take long for 250 people to file out, so the 251st person soon appeared, escorted by the suited gentlemen who went in previously. It was none other than the Irish President, popular politician, poet, sociologist, author and broadcaster, one Michael D Higgins, himself. A person I had cartooned for my weekly contribution to The Irish World on 11.11.11, when he took office… and which adorns this page. I remember thinking at the time that this man had the perfect, almost leprechaun qualities for caricaturing. Meeting him confirmed this.

But what self-respecting satirist doesn’t carry around with him a copy of a cartoon depicting the 9th President of the Republic of Ireland, to get it signed if, by chance the subject appears in front of him. How remiss of me! He did however sign my sketch pad in a vivid blue sharpie, while telling me how much he enjoyed the play in the 251st seat. He’s back in April, at the invitation of the Queen, to become the first Irish President to pay a State visit to the UK. I just might have to slip down to the Palace with a copy of the cartoon depicting the 9th President of the Republic of Ireland if, by chance we meet again!

Drawing: The Night Alive starring Ciaran Hinds, Brian Gleeson, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Michael McElhatton and Jim Norton

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

THE NIGHT ALIVE is Dublin playwright Conor McPherson’s latest play. After a short run at the Donmar Warehouse in London, (June/July 2013) it transferred to the Linda Gross Theatre in New York, where it is currently playing with the season extended till February.

It revolves around a motley collection of losers, living hand-to-mouth in a trapped existence. Despite its particular Irish setting and vernacular, the play has a universality, common in most of Conor’s work, concerning the loss and redemption among inarticulate people who don’t have the emotional grammar to express themselves.

An excellent cast of 5: Ciaran Hinds, Brian Gleeson, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Michael McElhatton and Jim Norton all came out at the same time of the Donmar on a balmy (and blarney) July evening. Inevitably, I was going to miss one or two as they all quickly headed to the local to quench their thirsts on such a warm night. Hopefully some of the others gathered to garner a graph would delay them long enough for me to sift around all five. I missed one – Brian, mainly because I didn’t recognise him. But I did get him the following evening.

Michael signed for me the previous night, but he didn’t dedicate,so after I recognised and got Brian I asked Michael to sign ‘To Mark’ – he started to sign his name again,then realised it was already there,hence the ‘Michael M’ added to his script on the lower right – five and a half sigs over two nights – not bad!

Drawing: Dudley Moore, The Sex Thimble

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Dudley Moore was one of Britain’s best loved comedians, actors and musicians.

He became a household name in the 1960s for his partnership with the late Peter Cook, creating the classic comic characters Dud and Pete, becoming comic icons on both sides of the Atlantic. He was also an accomplished jazz pianist winning a scholarship to Oxford’s Magdalen College. He was nicknamed ‘The Sex Thimble” because of his 5’2″ stature.

Dud went on to a successful Hollywood career, starring in a number of hit screen comedies, including the Blake Edward’s film 10 (1979) with Bo Derek and Arthur (1981) with Liza Minnelli and Sir John Gielgud. In the latter he played Arthur Bach, a drunken New York millionaire collecting an Oscar nomination and winning the Golden Globe Award.

In the 1990’s he suffered from a rare, incurable brain condition, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Music became his main comfort… “But it’s difficult to know that all the keys are there to be played and I can’t play them. People started saying I was drunk on stage… it was dreadful,” he said. He played 2 concerts at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand in November 1996 before he went public with his condition. He kindly signed my sketch at the venue. He sadly passed away in March 2002, aged 66.

Drawing: Rosalie Craig in The Light Princess at The National Theatre

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The Light Princess is a dark Scottish fairy tale by George MacDonald, published in 1864. It revolves around a princess who loses her mother and her gravity, so floats in the air. She also lacks moral gravity, incapable of real feeling and laughs at everything – her way of blocking out pain and responsibility.

It was the inspiration for the National Theatre musical production and six years in the making. It was adapted by Samuel Adamson with music and lyrics by Tori Amos, directed by Olivier and Tony Award winner Marianne Elliot.

Rosalie Craig is the Light Princess, Althea. The Evening Standard said “Rosalie Craig is stunningly good.” She won the newspapers Theatre Award for Best Musical Performance and is nominated for a What’s On Stage Award.

Drawing: Rhys Ifans in Protest Song at The National Theatre

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Protest Song is a 70 minute monologue in The Shed – The National Theatre’s new intimate venue on the South Bank.

A rough sleeper, Danny finds himself caught up in the Occupy movement’s protest camp that descended on St Paul’s environs through the winter of 2011. It’s visceral political theatre, lampooning inequality at every level and the gulf between the people who have temporarily taken to the streets, and the man who lives there because he has nowhere else to go.

Initially furious at the invasion, Danny gradually gets involved with his ‘surrogate’ family, giving shape to his day.

Rhys Ifans plays the wounded and resilient Danny, delivering Tim Price’s funny and savage narrative in what critics have called, “a blazing performance”, “superb” and “utterly convincing”. After many years of being asked to move along, it’s ironic now to be told to remain motionless in one place. He takes refuge in banter and anecdotes, full of pathos and humour, but imminently combustible.

It’s not your usual festive theatre, with no fairytale ending, summed up by the metaphor of a piano with damaged keys, that when something is broken you have to find a way to work around it. It’s the only way the music will be heard.

Drawing: Jo Brand as the Genie in Aladdin at the New Wimbledon Theatre

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Josephine Grace ‘Jo’ Brand is one of the UK’s best comics. The Observer listed her as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. She made her panto debut last month in the New Wimbledon’s production of Aladdin as the Genie of the Ring.

Jo won a BAFTA award for her role as Kim Wilde in the BBC sitcom Getting On, set in a hospital’s geriatric ward, inspired by her earlier career as a psychiatric nurse. Jo also wrote with other core cast members Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdire winning the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Comedy in 2010.

She describes her genie appearance as “Julian Clary on steroids.”

Drawing: Mark Rylance, Joanna Lumley and David Hyde Pierce in La Bête

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

American playwright David Hirson’s rollicking 1991 play La Bête is a comic tour de force involving Elomire (David Hyde Pierce), a hight-minded classical dramatist who loves only theatre, and Valere (Mark Rylance) a low-born street clown who loves only himself. When the fickle princess (Joanna Lumley) decides she’s grown weary of Elomire’s Royal Theatre troupe, he and Valere are left fighting for survival as art squares off with ego in a literary showdown.

La Bête completed its West End Season from June to August 2010 at the Comedy Theatre (now Harold Pinter) before transferring to the Music Box Theatre for a limited two month run on Broadway in September/October that year.

All three stars signed my sketches at the Comedy Theatre in London.